Soft, clear, beautiful skin is a joy to behold. It communicates the health and vitality of the person blessed with such skin. Indeed, the health of the skin is a reflection of the health of similar tissues throughout the body such as the gut lining and blood vessel lining.
Like the gut lining, our skin exists in a symbiotic relationship with hundreds of different kinds of healthy skin bacteria that act as a protective shield against harmful bacteria from the environment. A stunning example of this symbiosis is whatever scientists found when they were testing the use of antibacterial skin products and hand cleansers. Those folks that regularly used antibacterial skin products, soaps, and hand cleansers were much more likely to acquire infections than those who only used simple soap and water as a cleanser.
Skin keeps our insides in and the outside out – mostly. It is the largest organ of our body and though it seems simple, it is not. The skin tells us vast amounts of information about our environment – everything from temperature and feel to chemical and electrical assessment of our immediate world. It manufactures the most important hormone for our immune system – vitamin D. It acts as a pathway for removing poisons from our insides. The health of our skin is vital to the health of our whole body.
I have been in practice 33 years now, and as I go along I have noticed my patients seem to be aging along with me. Time does unfortunate things to skin. Each year the machinery inside our cells that produces energy and proteins for cellular rejuvenation and repair slows down. The tissue becomes less elastic and begins to sag. The skin becomes thinner as the cells fail to repair and replace themselves when the older cells die away. The blood vessels become more sparse preventing good nutrition and oxygen from getting to the outer layers of 
the skin. The collagen protein that provides substance and firmness wastes away and wrinkles start to take over.
There are many things we can do to slow down this process of aging skin from the inside – a good diet, exercise, proper sun exposure for our skin type, various nutrients, good hydration, and so on. These help, but they don’t stop the internal machinery from slowing down.
But what if there was a way to directly improve this machinery (called the mitochondria and endoplasmic reticulum)? What if we could boost the energy production of the skin cells and help them rejuvenate? We spend billions of dollars on products that fake the appearance of healthy skin. But what if we could actually make the skin healthier? It turns out we can do just that.
Years of research on skin tissues have discovered that skin cells are sensitive and helpfully reactive to four specific wavelengths of light. Each wavelength of light gives us a very specific color. Sunlight is made up of thousands of wavelengths or colors of light as we see when we break the light apart through a prism and see the resulting rainbow of color. Scientifically we describe these wavelengths by their length measured in nanometers. Each color or wavelength of light produces a different biological effect in the skin.
The first color is the 850 nm wave which we can’t actually see because it is in the near infrared part of the spectrum – which we feel as heat rather than see. This “color” is responsible for many of the healing effects of a sauna. These 850 nm waves penetrate 2 to 3 inches and increase blood flow to sooth and heal sore muscles and joints. But where a sauna might take an hour to produce the desired results, by using just the specific frequency of light that produces the increase in blood flow, we can produce a therapeutic effect in just a couple minutes. I am working on just such a light for use with back pain in my patients.
The second wavelength that is biologically active is 660 – 670 nm. This is a deep red color. It accelerates tissue healing of wounds and infections and helps relieve deep pain. If you were to stub your toe or hit your thumb with a hammer, this is the color you would use to stop the pain and take down the swelling in the tissues. This wavelength increases cellular production of energy (ATP) which the tissues use to regenerate and stimulate collagen repair. Most of the research done by NASA on light emitting diodes for healing therapy was for this wavelength. The treatment light in the office for this wavelength requires 5 to 10 minutes exposure on the skin for best results. Typically light therapy for facial skin is done three times per week and maximum results are achieved in 2 to 3 months.
The third wavelength is also a red light at 635nm. This color is very interesting because it has been found to open the pores in fat cells so that they release the fat stored within them into the lymph around them. Laser Lipo uses this wavelength for spot weight reduction. The 635 nm LEDs are identical in their effect and can be considered a non-coherent laser light therapy. This non-coherence is much safer – no eye damage to be concerned with – yet it triggers the same effect on the fat cells under the skin. I am currently setting up a non-coherent laser light weight loss program at the office. I will let you know all about it in a newsletter once it is ready.
The fourth wavelength is 590 nm amber colored light. This color has had a considerable amount of research done on it regarding reversal of photo-aging and wrinkles. The unit I have constructed at the office is very powerful and treatment time is only 1 minute in front of this light. Strangely, too much light seems to negate the benefits, so the old “more is better” thinking does not work here for the skin. As few as ten treatments is reported to generate noticeable improvements in skin tone and smoothness. Medical clinics around the country are currently using amber light to reverse the photo-aging effects of a lifetime of sun exposure.
A fifth useful wavelength that the skin does not react to directly is used to kill off unwanted bacteria such as is found in acne. This is the blue to near ultra violet wavelengths. You can see this technology used in hospitals to purify the air by passing it in front of an ultraviolet light. The light therapy unit at the office has a blue wavelength function if anyone needs this.
While my primary interest is in health, I also see value in the aesthetic improvement of the skin. Some people may wonder why would a doctor’s office be interested in aesthetics? The reality is how we feel about ourselves directly affects our health. Making ourselves aesthetically more appealing raises our self esteem and in turn increases our immune health. Looking younger really does help us feel younger, and feeling better is what I am all about.
Although light therapy treatments are quite expensive in spas and medical clinics, since I am building my own device for the amber light and importing the red and blue wavelength treatment device, I am able to offer the two treatments together for only $15. The treatments will be largely self administered so that you can simply drop in during office hours and use them at your convenience. To keep the front office from having to deal with lots of small payments, I am offering a package of 10 treatments for $150. You could treat as frequently as every day if you wish, but 2 to 3 times a week would be a minimum to see any results.
This is the cutting edge technology for facial rejuvenation – no knives, no chemical peels, no laser ablation burns, no toxic injections – just pure wavelengths of light. Interested? Check it out!